Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Ninja scribes

We have ninja scribes in our department.
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These are young, eager premeds who follow our attendings from room to room and maniacally type H&Ps into electronic notes on COWs. They are dressed in all black scrubs, as not to confuse them with the healthcare providers. They listen to resident presentations and type as we speak. They type the medical decision making of the attending as it occurs in real time. The ninjas transcribe the EKG and radiology results as the attending dictates their own thoughts into the air. The ninja-notes can be accessed at any time so the the attending can use them to tighten up official notes.
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I am jealous of these ninjas.
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Ninja Scribe, dressed in black

Why?
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They are getting an extremely high quality premedical education. I know of no higher. One ninja tells me that she will see over 700 patients before applying to med school. She will see 700 cases from chief complaint to disposition and will watch an expert level thinker work up every single one of them. Before she even starts medical school, she will observe more patients being treated than most of her classmates will see before they graduate med school. She will have the best H&P skills in her med school, she will have a solid framework to make the preclinical science stick, and she will understand what it is to practice clinical medicine before she attempts to do it herself.
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I wish I had been a ninja. I'd be a much better resident.
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Great post! Christina, I'm curious, what sort of training did you have to become a scribe. My hats off to you! I know that I wouldn't know how to spell anything a doctor said when I was in college. "An esohpa-what-now?"

We went through about 2 weeks of training with common medical acronyms and terminology. We did round after rounds of practice charting in a controlled environment to improve our skills and confidence. However, most people who were hired as a scribe had some sort of medical background. For example, I had been EMT-certified in addition to countless hours of previous medical shadowing in various departments. Others had various types of research, BLS training, hospital tech, and other such medically-related positions. Also, our trick was we always had a google tab open on our COWs (or rather, WOWs). And the longer we were scribes, the more we picked up and remembered. It was a good experience!